City, Honeywell Agree on Cleanup

According to published reports, a final deal could be in place in weeks, effectively ending a nearly two-year legal battle between the city and the Morristown-based Honeywell over cleanup responsibility. The site's soil is heavily laced with chromium, put there by Mutual Chemical Co., a Honeywell predecessor company, which for years had operated a plant just across Route 440 from the site.

Terming the pending deal "an agreement in principle," a Honeywell spokesman said in a prepared statement, "it will unlock the redevelopment of [Jersey City's] west side, creating the possibility of new [development] by establishing investment and job-growth incentives."

And city officials are already prepared to roll out some specific plans for the site, which sits between Route 440 and the confluence of the Hackensack River and Newark Bay. Multiple developers would likely develop the proposed community, and the city's plan, slated to be formally introduced to the city council this week, calls for 8,000 condo units and more than one million sf of office and retail space.

Also part of the plan are an extension of the Hackensack River walkway along the site's river frontage and a new Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station, according to a spokesman. Approximately 20 acres would be left as open space. The entire plan would still be subject to approval of the site's remediation by the New Jersey DEP.

The pending deal comes as the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency has received a grant of $15 million spread over three years from the NJ DEP for the cleanup of another nearby site. The 20-acre tract is situated along the New Jersey Turnpike between Grand Street and Jersey Avenue, and the cleanup involves removal of abandoned and buried drums.

"The city stands to gain a tremendous land asset, which has been dormant for years," says Robert Antonicello, executive director of the JCRA. Residential and commercial space is also on tap for that site.